Each of the past three centuries has been dominated by a single technology. The eighteenth century included great mechanical systems ushering in the industrial revolution. The nineteenth century saw the steam engine's development. During the twentieth century, the key technology was information gathering, processing, and distribution. Other developments include worldwide telephone networks, radio and television, the birth and unprecedented growth in the computer industry, and communication satellites.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, these areas are rapidly converging, and the differences between collecting, transporting, storing, and processing information are quickly disappearing. For example, enterprises with hundreds of offices spread over a wide geographical area routinely expect to inspect the current status of even their most remote office at the push of a button. As capabilities to gather, process, and distribute information grow, the demand for even more sophisticated information processing grows faster.
As a result of these advancing technologies, a need to control user access to application/system capabilities and information systems has developed. For example, a basic requirement for any system that stores sensitive customer data may include data security. The permissions and privileges of any user in such a system may depend on the user's designation and responsibilities in a business process, for example. Many e-commerce systems have developed control mechanisms for their needs with the logic to control access firmly set to address specific business scenarios including specific players and roles. Conventional systems, however, do not sufficiently address the dynamic access control requirements of a generic tool that can be used to automate a business process.
Thus, there is a need for improved systems and methods for providing application capabilities management and user administration. For instance, there is a need to provide user administration where a user is associated with a profile comprising a plurality of roles while various roles are a respective set of application capabilities. Furthermore, there is a need for such improved systems and methods to address dynamic access control requirements including a generic tool that can be used to automate a business process.